Recently, Bwin and Real Madrid have renewed their sponsorship agreement for the amount of over 20 million euro per season until 2013.

In this type of contract is usual to provide for a reduction of the quantities paid by sponsor if team can not wear the sponsored t-shirt by prohibitions of the country where the game is.

Last week in Zurich, Real Madrid could not use the T-shirt as Swiss authorities prohibit the advertising of gambling houses. The Region Madrid permit it, however France does not authorize to show logo of the betting houses, at least until next January.

Real Madrid will face AC Milan team also sponsored by Bwin. As stated in the UEFA Regulations, if two teams have the same sponsor on the shirt, the home team may have the logo on the jersey, while the visitor must change it for the advertisement of a product company. Thus, in the matches at the Bernabeu Stadium, Real Madrid will play with Bwin-shirt, while in Milan it won’t’ do it. Of the six matches, Madrid will be play with sponsored Bwin t-shirt just three times.

The Real Madrid isn’t a unique case. A total of seven Spanish teams are involved in European competitions and three of them are sponsored by an online betting firm. The Seville is sponsored by 12bet betting house of Israel, which is facing the same problem in their match against Stuttgart. Unibet sponsors Valencia F.C.

With the law in the hand, this advertising also would be illegal in Spain. However, pending the submission of the bill to develop regulations for these kinds of companies, the Spanish authorities have a more permissive attitude than other surrounding countries.

Source: Expansion